No Mans Sky

FAILSAFE 00

Wow, that update did wonders. The game even looks much better now and smoother.

chrislad

FAILSAFE 00 wrote: »

Wow, that update did wonders. The game even looks much better now and smoother.

Just coming on to ask about this! I was enjoying it but I said I'd wait until the pop in had been resolved. I must see if I can give a few hours this evening to it.

FAILSAFE 00

chrislad wrote: »

Just coming on to ask about this! I was enjoying it but I said I'd wait until the pop in had been resolved. I must see if I can give a few hours this evening to it.

I unfortunately never looked at the pop in. I was having issues with dropped frames, crap anti-aliasing and the game wasn't moving smoothly.

H3llR4iser

Sooooo, I got this a couple of nights ago. Put in a few hours (4, maybe 5) and went around a little bit before reaching any conclusions. Maybe because of all the negative reactions, maybe because I was a bit skeptical from the very moment I learnt about the game's development a year ago, but all it all it doesn't look to me like the unmitigated disaster a lot of Internet rage pictures it for. Not the best game ever, but not the worst either.

Let's begins with performance: it runs very, very well on my rather pedestrian 3570k with a 2GB GTX960, 1920x1080 with everything cranked up to the maximum. I didn't measure the framerate, but it's smooth with no noticeable lag. I did experience a strange issue - as soon as I deactivated V-Sync, the framerate dropped to almost zero IN SHIP, while remaining good on foot. Re-activating V-Sync didn't solve the problem - I had to go back to "default" settings and then bring everything back up to maximum. Most likely a bug.

Graphics are a bit odd - I'm not sure if the art style is also influencing me here. It looks like the AA is working in strange way - especially on the stations, there are plenty of "blurry" edges (I have a hard time describing them...not jagged, but not smooth). I haven't tried tweaking nVidia's own settings. In space things seem rather fine, on the planets it's all right when on foot, there's a bit of "popping up" while flying low altitude. One bit of an annoying characteristic is that there seems to be some relatively curious LOD in use on the planets: essentially things are drawn in their "initial" state from distance and reveal signs of your...ehm...handiwork only when you approach closer.

The interface should probably be the most controversial part of the game. I don't find the inventory system as bad as most people seem to - even the combined system with keys/short click/held on click is ok for me; The only minor issue is that modifications and upgrades take inventory slots. It also didn't take me more than a few seconds to realize things were driven by "long clicks" - the little circle that fills in is a dead giveaway.
On the so-so side, the HUD looks ok to me if a bit inconsistent - the data in the left bottom corner tends to disappear when the game deems it "not relevant". I like to see it - maybe there's a setting I haven't checked yet.
Where things go downhill fast is on the star map - it's an utterly unusable mess with zero functionality and a rather odd navigation system. I've warped out of the star system I spawned in, and I'm fairly sure I won't be able to find it ever again (unless there's some way to do so from the "journey" section/screen).

I left the actual gameplay last, on purpose. Let's put it this way - if one jumps in game expecting a fast paced, adventurous, swashbuckling Han Solo-ish experience, he or she will be utterly disappointed and bored to tears within the first 2 hours.
The game has a more leisurely pace, and most of the time you'll be trading. The procedural planet generation has heavy limitations which I expected, basically you can tell the building blocks are the same for everything; Some more information could be given to the player to make curious sights a bit more interesting, like when you land on a planet with liquid oceans and a -75c surface temperature - letting the player know what that ocean is made of would add a bit of depth and variation. Same with atmospheric composition (it just says if it's toxic or not).
Space combat isn't as terrible as it's said to be - I got attacked by pirates and sent them to their graves quickly; Probably the key is to upgrade your ship weapons to BEAM type ones as soon as possible, since they travel and hit almost instantly compared to the slow moving and imprecise pulse cannon.

As said, all in all the game isn't as bad as most people say and at least has some originality to it. There's a lot of potential that hopefully will be harnessed in the future by adding features and tweaking the existing stuff.

Sonics2k

So, I gave this a good go after getting my hands on a copy.

First of all, let's get this out of the way. This game is absolutely nothing like the trailers or anything we have seen before. The graphics are totally different, animals look different. The exception being travelling to planets.

This is a decent game if you just want to burn time and explore, however after visiting at least 10 planets they are all basically the same style, just with a different atmosphere.

I am so horribly disappointed in this game, but delighted I stuck with my Never Pre-Order system. It's a €30 game tops, not €60.

Kiith

Yeah, it seems like it has the Elite syndrome of being a mile wide and an inch deep (and this is even worse than Elite from what i've read). I'm going to wait and see if they add in some meaningful content at a later date. Definitely not spending €60 on it, after reading the reviews.

H3llR4iser

The biggest problem remains most likely the price, I sincerely can't remember the last time I paid 60 Euro for a game; One can't help thinking Sony tried to ride the hype with it (as a comparison, F1 2016 came out Friday and it's 49.99 on Steam, for a game with an official license and a huge studio behind).

Probably a price point around the 30s marker would have been a better fit.

On the theme of "funny issues" - was playing again yesterday. Landed on a new planet - "Fauna: Absent; Flora: Absent". And a lot of cactus-like plants in front of me

chrislad

I paid 34 for it, so I don't feel so bad. As a game, there's not much there. For me, it's basically Truck Simulator in space. Maybe with mods, and future updates, it'll be fleshed out a bit. As it stands, it's a nice distraction, but most distractions tend to be fleeting.

EoinHef

Im about 15hrs in and the limitations are starting to become apparent but im still enjoying it so far all the same.

Inventory could use a rebalance,although i did'nt find it as bad as people have made out. It does feel like its being used to pad out the "gameplay" though. Ive gotten to a point though its not really an issue anymore.

Currently looking for a better ship,gonna hunt them down rather than pay for them.

I paid €60 for it about a week after release,took my time getting first impressions and despite hoping for more from the game i decided id still like to give it a shot. If i get 30-40 hrs out of i reckon ill be happy enough. Who knows what Hello Games can/cant do with updates patches etc so be interesting to see that in the long run. Though i have a feeling theres not gonna be anything revolutionary in the pipeline

Maximus Alexander

It'll be interesting to see if they bother to fix some of the major complaints through patching, and whether they flesh it out a little bit over time. I'm still interested, but wouldn't be bothered picking it up in its current form. I'd like to think that 6-12 months down the line they'll have polished it up into something more robust. Wishful thinking, perhaps.

EoinHef

There are things i look at while playing the game and think to myself that could do with a bit of balance/changing but then i think the game is procedural and can it even be changed in that way because of it.

chrislad

I've installed a few mods - mainly the instagram filter remover, and a better ship mod that allows you to fly lower, and most importantly, fast actions. No more holding X for me! It's much more enjoyable after that. Mods could make this game.

Zillah

chrislad wrote: »

I've installed a few mods - mainly the instagram filter remover, and a better ship mod that allows you to fly lower, and most importantly, fast actions. No more holding X for me! It's much more enjoyable after that. Mods could make this game.

Yeah, they could certainly improve quality of life quite a bit. I'd love something that speeds up mining by about 500%. Honestly, is it really going to ruin the game if I can break down that copper tower in one minute instead of five?

H3llR4iser

Kiith wrote: »

Yeah, it seems like it has the Elite syndrome of being a mile wide and an inch deep (and this is even worse than Elite from what i've read). I'm going to wait and see if they add in some meaningful content at a later date. Definitely not spending €60 on it, after reading the reviews.

This is a thing I keep seeing around - people going on about "content". The issue is...what would be "content" for a procedurally generated galaxy? I suspect everything would boil down to the old trite "go to place X, kill bad guy, retrieve McGuffin, bring McGuffin to good guy" and a handful variations on the theme, as it would need to be kept simple enough to be adaptable to whatever planets/scenarios get generated for the "mission"

EoinHef

Zillah wrote: »

Yeah, they could certainly improve quality of life quite a bit. I'd love something that speeds up mining by about 500%. Honestly, is it really going to ruin the game if I can break down that copper tower in one minute instead of five?

Copper,Aliminium,Nickel and Iridium i now only mine in space. But yeah a big tower of emeril takes a long time to take down on a planet and ive a pretty hefty multi tool at this stage with +3 upgrades focused on mining.

I decided to fill about 7 ship and 10 exo slots with emeril yesterday,took about an hour,was just under 2 mil earned though so wasnt too bad but dont think ill be doing it again.

Kiith

H3llR4iser wrote: »

This is a thing I keep seeing around - people going on about "content". The issue is...what would be "content" for a procedurally generated galaxy? I suspect everything would boil down to the old trite "go to place X, kill bad guy, retrieve McGuffin, bring McGuffin to good guy" and a handful variations on the theme, as it would need to be kept simple enough to be adaptable to whatever planets/scenarios get generated for the "mission"

More things to explore would do. Crashed starships (may already be there), ancient civilizations, underwater ruins, black holes, anomalies, nebula etc... Make the galaxy interesting to explore.

I don't particularly want quests, just more variation. From everything i've read, every planet is basically just a re-colour of the last.

RGDATA!

H3llR4iser wrote: »

Not the best game ever, but not the worst either.

in fairness, pretty much nobody is calling it the worst game ever.

Zillah

They could easily add a little more variety for excitement's sake.

- A cave system that's difficult to navigate but has a huge crystal cache at the bottom.
- Giant, aggressive (and genuinely dangerous) animals that drop resources when they die, so you can go elephant hunting in space.
- Broken observatories that need to be repaired (like repairing a crashed ship) to unlock something cool (more than just another waypoint to a ruin).
- Long distance tracking of important waypoints. Have some mega-ruin or high-slot-count ship be detectable from far away, and you have to track it down to the right solar system, then planet, then location, and get a big pay-off.

That's just off the top of my head. They have plenty of mechanics in place, and they chose to apply them to grindy monotonous activities rather than longer engaging ones with some diversity.

Zillah

Also while I think of it:
It would be much more fun if you could scan a planet from orbit and get the environmental conditions, and see if it was a burning ruin or irradiated or whatever, and make them genuinely dangerous rather than annoying. Sometimes you'd get to a hell-planet and just have to not land on it because your suit isn't upgraded enough. They could lock some of the special resources needed for some of the more advanced modules behind these barriers so that you have a sense of progress and achievement.

As in: I want a Tau Warp Reactor, I need Oxegon to build that, which can only be found on planets that are 300c+ degrees, so my goal for now is to get my suit upgraded to withstand 300c so I can go get Oxegon and upgrade my warp drive. After that maybe my long term goal will be to get a theta shield module, which needs Murrine, which can only be found on highly irradiated planets, which will require me to get that protection, etc.

There are so many things they could easily have done to give the gameplay a bit more sense of progression and structure that wouldn't have required quests or any diversion from their procedural commitment.

It just makes me feel sad that we got what we got.

CruelCoin

My biggest gripe is that of the 30 or so planets I've landed on so far, the vast majority have been barren wastelands.

I've not yet seen a lush blue-grassed, red treed paradise. Everything's been a lump of rock.

Same goes for Fauna. Animals are few and far between from what I've seen.

I hope I've been unlucky and that i'll see more, but this isn't good enough so far.

The game I've been sold on simply has not materialized thus far.

Robert ninja

http://gearnuke.com/no-mans-sky-players-getting-refunds-game-psn-steam/

Valve apparently lifting 2-hour limit for refunds on this title.

EoinHef

Lets put this to the test so,ive 38 hrs played i think.....

The game is ok imo,but was never worth €60. As the devs dont seem to have been completely honest in the depiction of the game either im gonna try refund with a view to re purchasing the game at a lower price point.

FAILSAFE 00

EoinHef wrote: »

Lets put this to the test so,ive 38 hrs played i think.....

The game is ok imo,but was never worth €60. As the devs dont seem to have been completely honest in the depiction of the game either im gonna try refund with a view to re purchasing the game at a lower price point.

Good idea.

Kiith

This is probably why they don't offer refunds. Sorry, but there's no way you should be entitled to a refund after 38 hours of play.

The_Valeyard

EoinHef wrote: »

Lets put this to the test so,ive 38 hrs played i think.....

The game is ok imo,but was never worth €60. As the devs dont seem to have been completely honest in the depiction of the game either im gonna try refund with a view to re purchasing the game at a lower price point.

After 38hrs? You'd probably spend that on an evening out.

EoinHef

Well it was refused anyway so there you go. Im not to fussed as ive played a decent amount but out of curiosity what is someone entitled to in the case of NMS?

Should there be no comeback once they have your money?

In my case fair enough,38hrs is a lot of game time. But say someone gave the game the benefit of the doubt for say 10hrs and realised at that point the game wasnt what was advertised,should they be granted a refund?

Strange case this game,my intention would have been to re buy it down the road at a cheaper price. I guess im along for the ride now either way

Zillah

Kiith wrote: »

This is probably why they don't offer refunds. Sorry, but there's no way you should be entitled to a refund after 38 hours of play.

I got lambasted on Reddit for suggesting it wasn't reasonable to expect a refund after 70 hours. Everyone just jumped on me complaining about Hello Games.

Gamers really can be such a rabid lot.

I have lots of problems with how the game turned out, but ultimately I've gotten 40 hours out of it and will probably return to it after a month or two of patches and mods, so I really don't think it's anyway reasonable to expect a refund.

Overheal

I'm still having fun with my 30s hours of play. I'm aware the game is not up to the snuff that I think was hinted at at its e3 debut or subsequent material but feel they will try and improve it. It is disappointing there arent you know, more varieties of landscape per planet (continents, for instance, or climate regions) or water features and such, but the game is relatively fun and enjoyable and still a pretty great feat. Nothing stops them from expanding the game later, either by changing the base "equation" or telling users that the next galaxy will be based on an equation 2.0 or something. Either way its not ridiculous to think they will add more expansive starbase/space meta and more planet variety if they can get the math to work right.

Zillah

I really hope they do a World 2.0 within a year or so, where they tweak their procedural system to generate continents with different biomes, moving water, more diverse systems, etc.

Might be a total pipe dream, maybe they're just going to cut and run once the initial patch flurry is over.

The_Valeyard

You could all be switching over to Star Citizen (if it ever gets made)


I will probably buy this game during the Steam winter sale. But really I actually resisted the urge to buy this. Usually I always cave in and see order . I do not think it's necessarily a bad game, just needs more in it. Which could come with time.